As faith in government drops, nonprofit sector steps up transparency efforts

The Huffington Post: On Tuesday, just as Steve Ballmer launched a $10million+ USAFacts.org website dedicated to increasing government transparency, Colorado saw its own nonprofit transparency website launch with ompnetwork.org.

The Open Media Project is a new service designed to help small governments use the latest video streaming and archiving technologies to meet voters where they’re at, and to help constituents easily engage with their government. A project of Denver-based nonprofit, Open Media Foundation, the project grew out of coloradochannel.net, a site OMF built for the Colorado Legislature to stream and archive every session of the Colorado House and Senate.

“It’s an incredible resource for the people of Colorado, lowering the bar for civic engagement and enabling every resident of the state to be informed and engaged in the issues they care about,” said Andrew Romanoff, who planted the seeds for the project with the Open Media Foundation ten years ago as Speaker of the Colorado State House of Representatives. Now, as the CEO of a Colorado-based nonprofit and advocacy organization, Romanoff uses the tools to stay abreast of debate around mental health legislation at the capitol.

“As technology advances, this level of transparency is accessible even to the smallest governments in Colorado,” said Brian Hiatt, lead developer on the Open Media Project. The software was demonstrated today at the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority “Enabling Digital Transformation” conference.